Ethno-religious wealth distribution in the Ottoman Empire in the 18th century: example of Kayseri and Manisa

Official URL: http://192.168.1.20/record=b1558720 (Table of Contents)

In this thesis we use tereke records of Manisa and Kayseri, and compare wealth distributions between 1700-1720 and 1780-1800 periods. We first checked whether rise in wealth of non-Muslims was more significant than of Muslims in both cities. We found that in Manisa, as is expected because it had strong commercial relationship with Europe, non-Muslims economically improved more than Muslims. However, a rapid economic decline of non-Muslims is observed in Kayseri. Then we tried to examine commercial activities of Muslims and non-Muslims through commercial properties in the tereke records. We observed that commercial activities of non-Muslims also expanded in comparison with commercial activities of Muslims in Manisa, and commercial activities of non-Muslims reduced in Kayseri. Therefore we rejected the claim that there was a general ascendance of non-Muslims in the 18th century. Non- Muslims seem to develop only in regions which had strong commercial relationship with Europe, but in regions like Kayseri, where domestic trade was strong, both general wealth level and vitality of commercial activities of non-Muslims left behind Muslims.